When fat meets disability in poverty porn: exploring the cultural mechanisms of suspicion in Too Fat to Work

Abstract

There has been a distinct neglect of dis/ability in socio-cultural analysis of poverty porn. This paper applies framing analysis to reality TV documentaries that feature larger bodied, disabled, welfare claimants to examine how cultural literacies of fatness and ‘obesity’ are drawn upon to cast suspicion upon disability welfare claimants in so-called poverty-porn. With a focus on Channel 5's Benefit Britain series, Benefiits Too Fat to Work we demonstrate that enduring and harmful representations of ‘obesity’ are put to the work of securing public consent for a post-welfare society in the UK.

Key Words:

• Austerity
• benefits
• disability welfare
• poverty porn
• suspicion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.